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User blog:Julia-B184/Civil War - Part Five
November 31, 2578 ADVENT Facility, Mandalore Elias stepped out of the ADVENT dropship, followed by the Captain accompanying him before and seven troopers. The supposedly isolated facility wasn't that far from the roadside, though to be fair on the outside it didn't look like anything more than a cluster of warehouses and small work buildings. The troopers moved rapidly to secure a defensive perimeter while another dropship deployed eight more. "How far away is the activity?" Elias asked the Captain. "Based on its current speed, their ETA is 30 minutes." The Captain answered, taking a moment to assign patrols of three before turning back to the Baron. "Our scout craft managed to get a rough picture on it, and it doesn't match anything in the standard Mandalorian military. We're going to ambush them once we land." "They're most likely going to land a ways away." Elias knew the dropship wouldn't risk a line of sight - they had no idea, after all, that they'd been sighted already. "Patrol the forests and keep an eye on the roadside just in case." The rush began to die down after a few minutes as the Captain ensured that all patrols and defensive positions had been established. Elias wanted to stay on guard, but he figured that if the dropship began to approach, they would detect it and be able to redeploy with haste. He then turned to the Captain. "I never heard your name, Captain." He inquired, toning down the voice change from his helmet to sound more natural. "Captain Dante Nylund." The officer answered. "It's nice to meet you in person, Baron." "It is?" Elias was surprised. "Even after what the Knights of Ren have done?" Nylund paused, thinking about it. "I don't think I can ever forgive the Knights of Ren for what they've done. I don't support them as much as I support ADVENT." He stopped again. "I admire their capability to take action for what they think is right, but I think their initial actions were very out of line. I guess they've learned from it." "Would you still fight for ADVENT if th- if we'd continued doing that?" "No. That would go against why I moved to this side." "And why did you move to this side?" Elias sat down on one of the short garden walls outside the work building. "When we left the Trading Republic, I was part of the initial conflict, with some of my family." Nylund remained standing as he answered the Baron's question. "With the thought of a new and better world, I chose to fight for secession, as did my son and wife. My wife's a shieldbearer now, and my son is crippled, but alive." Elias nodded to show he was listening, prompting Nylund to keep going. "Thing is, in the conflict we lost so many people close to us. I guess that's the reality of war, you know? But when I look at where Mandalore was, with the King just sitting on his ass and eating smörgåstårta all day, while our taxes went to him and the other families, I was so angry. What about the people who lost their lives to free us? What about my son, who could have been treated? You think you can just fix these things by tossing a medal to a few graves and cripples?" "You want to make all the sacrifices worth something." Elias summed up. "Yeah. I want the loss of my son's legs to have been all for something. The death of friends all around me. That's why we came to ADVENT." Nylund nodded. "I was skeptical. Danielsen just made all the same promises as the King, and the Knights of Ren were former terrorists. But when I look at the changes in Flodstrand, Sundari, everywhere under the First Order, how they actually kept their promises, that's why I fight for ADVENT." Elias found himself at a loss for words temporarily, processing what Nylund said. The Captain remained where he was, occasionally checking back up on patrols, as the two of them waited until the expected unit arrived. X-COM Skyranger Vera and Idun sat quietly in the Skyranger, once in a while looking up to the other two squad members in the tensely long flight. The soldiers had repeatedly checked their weapons to make sure they were fully loaded, over and over as if it would have changed in the last five minutes, just for something to do. "Two minutes to drop site." The pilot shouted back to the operatives, prompting all four to stand up and grip the handles on the top of the bay. "Ninety seconds." All four operatives glanced at each other in anticipation, the next minute seeming like an eternity. However, they then felt the insane rush of air as the bay door opened, showing the ground far below a layer of clouds. "Now!" The pilot shouted. Vera led the operatives in a short sprint, running off the lowered ramp and jumping. The intense wind and roar of the engines drowned out the sound of the other operatives following, but she continued on course confident they were right behind her. She continued in a straight dive, the sound of the Skyranger getting quieter and quieter until it was just the wind. When she finally saw the target facility in the distance, she hit the button on her belt. From her back, a wingsuit instantly deployed, slowing her descent dramatically and allowing her to move steadily forward. She barely managed to hear the other three do the same, now approaching the intended landing zone around a mile away from the facility. Turning her body slightly to aim at the area, she changed course, subtly tilting down to increase her speed. The Predator armor was likely the only reason that ADVENT hadn't seen them - when the wingsuit was deployed, the armor camouflaged itself to match how the sky looked at the time. To anyone on the ground, the operatives couldn't be seen, and the Skyranger was flying too high up above the clouds to be spotted. Vera closed in rapidly on the target landing zone, eventually slowing herself down by tilting upwards and engaging the parachute. Once she was close enough, she shot a grappling line from her wrist that embedded itself into the thick trunk of a tree. Retracting both the wingsuit and parachute, the grapple pulled Vera to the tree until she arrived and pulled herself up onto one of the sturdier branches. She waited there to ensure that the other three operatives made their landing, Idun and their heavy landing on the ground with their sniper landing in the tree the same way Vera had. The latter slid down the trunk of the tree and firmly hit the ground, striding over to the other two squad members. "Keep an eye out for any wildlife. A scared deer might alert the enemy if they see it." She ordered, getting a nod of acknowledgement from them. Slowly and quietly, the squad began to make their way towards the facility, taking great care in where they stepped. The sniper slid down from his tree as well, following from a distance just in case. For a while, it was extremely quiet, only the slight crunches of twigs beneath their feet every now and again. After around fifteen minutes of carefully advancing, however, they saw their target. The building was surrounded by far more ADVENT troopers than they had expected, at least seven or eight around the entire thing. There was no way they could grapple above the enemies' heads in broad daylight. Vera turned to Idun. "We need a way to draw a few of them from the building. Then two of us could take whoever's left and get the data we need, and we call the Skyranger to get us out of here before they retaliate in force." "Merrik and I will draw them out." The sniper volunteered, turning to their heavy, Merrik. "You use your chaingun and I'll pick off whoever's left." "While Vera and I get the intel." Idun concluded, turning to Vera for confirmation of the plan. Vera considered it, before nodding. "Alright. Get to another side of the building so their attention is that way." ADVENT Facility Elias and Nylund had since moved indoors to double-check the interior, the Knight of Ren watching as the Captain kept careful track of his patrols. Elias was going to ask another question to Nylund, but as he considered his words the two of them heard the loud crack of a sniper rifle. "Zero in on the shot!" Nylund wasted no time barking orders to his patrols over a channel, then switching to the troops outside. "Half of you go check that out." "The units we expected?" Elias lowered his helmet's voice changer once more. "That's my guess." Nylund hurried outside to his troopers, but Elias stayed inside. He watched as a trooper rushed to his fallen comrade that had been hit by the sniper shot, three others running to where the shot was believed to have come from. However, more shots broke him out of his focus as he turned back to where Nylund stood. Two of the troopers by him had fallen, and two more hostile units could be seen firing. "Fall back inside!" He heard the Captain shout, until another volley hit what troopers were left, including Nylund. From where he stood, Elias could see the two attackers sprinting to the building, one of them shooting the Captain as he tried to stand back up. Instantly Elias was filled with rage towards the assailants, taking his Varja and igniting it. A low-pitched hum and red glow filled the room as the Knight of Ren waited for the them to enter. Striding quickly to the front entrance, he saw one was already running upstairs but another blonde operative was advancing more slowly. By the time she saw Elias and her face lit up in surprise, the Baron had already lunged with a shout, raising his Varja to bring it down upon her. However, the blonde woman had moved quickly enough to draw her own, the high-pitched whine and black blade of a normal variant emitting from a long handle. The blades crackled as they slammed against each other, Elias beginning to push his further to the operative, her afraid but determined eyes lit up in the red reflection. "Which one are you?" The operative demanded, moving out of the blade lock and moving to a defensive stance. Elias didn't answer, swinging with rage to avenge Nylund and the troopers he lost to these bastards who would shoot one of their own people while they were down. His first attack was blocked, as was the second, but his third knocked her out of her stance enough for him to catch her off guard and use the Force to push her back into a wall. Not a second later did he hear another standard Varja igniting, swinging around in place and bringing his blade up to strike away the attempted stab from a red-headed operative. However, he noticed this one looked far more afraid. No, not afraid, but hesitant, from what he didn't know. His senses snapped him out of focusing on the new assailant when the first one came rushing up behind him, swinging as his side. Elias swung his blade indiscriminately behind him, deflecting the attack and proceeding to kick the redheaded operative in the gut and pushing her to the floor. Roughly putting his boot upon her chest, fully prepared to stab her. "What are you?" He inquired, his lowered voice contrasting with the sound of their blades. Like him, the redhead didn't answer, but only raised her hand quickly and a red-orange glow began to show itself. Elias went immediately to cut her hand off, but in his rush he'd forgotten about the blonde operative. Who jumped from behind and landed in front, blocking the blow before stepping back. With this window of opportunity, the redhead's hand glowed brighter until a jet of fire erupted from her palm. Dropping his lightsaber, Elias could only shield himself with the Force, the power of the fire pushing him back. Before he could compose himself from the surprise enough to deflect it entirely, the jet had stopped. When he managed to focus again, the operatives were both gone from the building. Ignoring his singed cloak, Elias rushed outside, only to hear the roar of jet engines grow louder. A dropship began to make a dangerously low approach, mere yards above the ground. He watched ADVENT troopers fire at it, their weapons doing no damage against the hull as the two operatives accompanied by one bearing a chaingun grappled into the troop bay. With the three of them on board, the dropship rose higher and began to retreat, moving far too fast to be caught by any nearby interceptors. Grinding his teeth in anger, Elias switched off his Varja and the red glow around him vanished. Putting its handle back on his belt, he strode over to the troopers, one of them trying to take a head count. "Status?" His growl was further lowered by the helmet. "Six troopers dead, four injured." The soldier reported after a short delay of processing information. "We did manage to kill one of them. Sniper by the look of his equipment. And the one carrying a chaingun took a few shots to the chest." "Take the sniper corpse to the nearest full-fledged facility, and his equipment to examine." Elias ordered. "We also need somebody to look at the files in the facility here. They came for something. After I contact the higher authority, we're going to start working on I.D.ing the attackers." The troopers immediately moved to follow his orders, with Elias looking to the body of Captain Nylund. He said to nobody in particular, "I'm going to ensure their victory is short-lived." Category:Blog posts